I’ve seen a lot of Moodles. I can’t resist a new Moodle link, to see the theme, the apparent activity on the front page and the various courses that are available (even though they might be closed). Checking out a new Moodle always gives me new ideas for posts, and how to design my own Moodle sites or courses.

Overtime I’ve visited a few over and over because they are just so cool. So here are my all time favorite Moodle sites*

1. http://www.moodleinschools.org.nz/ – The theme and overall design of this site is AMAZING. I love the palette. As a resource site for New Zealand, it’s really a great destination for courses, learning and other information. If you’re running a state or country based organization promoting Moodle, then this is a prime example of how to encourage Moodle with all of the right resources.

2. http://moodle.leedscitycollege.ac.uk/ – In my opinion: Best theme ever. The Leeds Moodle team seems to be unleashing new features and aesthetic flavor every week. Just check out Lewis Carr or Sukhwant Lota‘s blogs for the new features and tricks their posting on a regular basis. Well worth a visit to any of their sites.

4. http://imoot.org – This was used in early 2010 for the first ever virtual Moodle Moot. It is the first site I recall seeing with a modified 2 column layout (where the block columns are both on the same side). It’s also had some cool features like Facebook Connect-based registration and the Moodle bar. The cake though was the scheduling utility that was used. It was both robust enough to manage scheduling for dozens of sessions but very easy to use. Unfortunately some of the images are broken due to the prepping of iMoot 2011’s v2.0 site (but it was glorious in action). Update 9/8/2010: the imoot site had it’s images restored (yay!)

5. http://moodle.aub.edu.lb/ – This was featured a few weeks ago because of the wealth of information provided to teachers and students through the use of the Moodle Books Module. Though the theme is generally standard and basic, there’s a certain aesthetic which makes this site one of my favorites (perhaps I’m swayed by the direct link to Moodlenews…).

What’s your favorite Moodle? Do you have an exemplary Moodle to share based on it’s theme, purpose or otherwise? Share a link in the comments

Woops. Didn’t notice the broken images. I have updated the database so that the old iMoot site works properly. Hope to make th new iMoot site even bigger and better.

Thankyou for listing two of my sites on your list. The challenge now is to make sure the next ones get even bigger and better than ever. I always like to focus on student engagement. This is WAYYYY more important than branding in my opinion

Reviewing these sites again, I’d like to know if it’s possible for a non-developer to create a cool front page in Moodle. Is it as simple as taking an existing theme and modify it with new images, layout, etc.? Anyone know of a resource that lays this out, step-by-step? I’ve got a brand spankin’ new domain and (blank) website/webpage, ready to go at this for my moodle site. Thanks for any help you can send.

Julian Ridden (Moodleman) also has a pretty extensive video series (http://www.youtube.com/user/moodleman) for creating/customizing themes. I can say that the Moodle community is great at Moodle.org and if you have a question about customizing a specific theme (downloaded from Moodle.org’s theme db) then you should ask it there and the original author will most likely help you achieve your goal.

Deepak, that’s acknowledged in the comments already. While it is Drupal, the site also has Moodle integrated and the theme is almost identical to the front end. It’s a great example of how Moodle can be themed to look like other open source products. Thanks,

Joseph, thanks for the examples. My background is in experiential learning and curriculum design, but I’m also a video producer/graphic artist. I’ve been wanting to see the moodle platform become more interactive. I’ve seen some creative ideas on how to go beyond simple “discussion forums” to collaborative learning, but I’m wondering if you’d have examples you’ve seen where Moodle is being used to its full potential and not simply a place where you watch online lectures and then download class notes and readings.

Thanks for responding. However it still looks like something out of the days of animated gifs and Microsoft Publisher. It’s a problem for many who are trying to create learning environments that are inviting. (I realize that if you’re signed up for a university class and have plunked down your money or student loan to be there, other motivations push you through the sheer aesthetic pain.) But if your course were as interesting to look at as the learning you’re trying to pass on, it would be so much stronger. I’ve been looking at things like Apple U and the newest interactive textbooks, but I’m not wanting to cut myself off from the potential of academic institutions that won’t make those kinds of jumps any day soon.

I hear what your saying but just because OLCHS doesn’t have a flashy theme doesn’t mean that collaborative learning isn’t happening. Another example is http://mathtrain.com/. It’s just a standard theme, but the site is anything but.

There are tons of themes that can be applied. You asked for examples of collaborative learning and where Moodle is being used to its full potential; theme notwithstanding those are just two examples.

Thanks for sharing this. It’s good to see how inventive you can be with themes and how effective some of them are but I think you meant best looking Moodle sites rather than best Moodle site. I was expecting to read on sites’ effective use of tools rather than looks.
Another article one day perhaps?

you are correct, this was just “best looking” based on themes. I think “best site” overall would be hard to gauge, there would need to be a composite of criteria that might include learner achievement, satisfaction, use of tools, active users, daily logins etc.